Soon after applying to study philosophy at university, I read a newspaper
article ranking employment prospects for graduates according to degree
subject.

Philosophy was right at the bottom of the league table. My 17-year-old self was undeterred (the few philosophy books I’d read had ignited a curiosity – and three years seemed a long way off) and I have never since regretted my choice of degree.

I enjoyed my studies, and a quarter of a century later feel they have helped with many aspects of life – including my fund management career.

It’s too grandiose a claim that studying philosophy teaches you how to think (and calling philosophy students “philosophers” is definitely over-egging things) but my degree certainly taught me to be open-minded and to understand that assumptions underlying conventional wisdoms are just assumptions, not truth.

I’m in my forties and having an arts degree is not unusual among my peers in the City – Newton’s chief investment officer studied history of art with a specialisation in Byzantium.

The impression sometimes given to young people considering their degree subject or earlier exam choices is that this is a historic phenomenon and nowadays it’s important to study a vocational or STEM subject.

There’s a great deal of encouragement (particularly of girls) to consider a science, technology, engineering or maths degree.

However, the latest evidence suggests that the tide in the City may be turning back in favour of humanities degrees. The largest banks recently revealed they are hiring more arts graduates again.

Barclays, for example, is taking on 900 recruits this year and around half have an arts background. This is by design rather than accident – it’s appreciated again (another lesson from the financial crisis?) that a wide range of subjects studied delivers a broader range of aptitudes and personality traits, such as leadership skills, too.

Newton has benefited from the diverse but consistently strong contributions of our graduate and undergraduate (paid) interns this summer, whose subjects range from Spanish to social anthropology, with a huge variety in between (including economics).

What we are looking for from all our staff is the ability to think laterally, to offer fresh insights, to be analytical and creative, to communicate well and work effectively in a team. Choice of degree subject is less important than how a person assesses both opportunities and challenges and that, in turn, is less important than their character. If they’ve chosen to study a subject that they love, that’s a positive indication about those other qualities.

All this is intuitive rather than hard fact. Recognising the lack of data and empirical evidence on the economic contribution of humanities graduates, researchers at Oxford University recently analysed the careers of 11,000 of its graduates who matriculated between 1960 and 1989.

The study, Humanities Graduates and the British Economy, suggests that these graduates (more than half of whom studied either philosophy or history) made a significant contribution to the UK’s economic growth in the 1980s and 1990s.

As Oxford’s vice-chancellor put it, the study is a first step towards articulating the importance of Britain’s humanities tradition in economic terms – and it’s a good news story for arts students. It also raises doubts over the Government’s decision to remove teaching funding for humanities, which the report’s authors say was a policy “formulated without an evidence base”.

The study contains some other interesting revelations. The gender stereotyping is stark: female students dominated male in subjects such as English and modern languages (roughly 2:1 ratios) and then the female graduates in all humanities subjects were drawn towards careers in education (more than 30pc) and media/arts (16pc). Almost twice as many men than women with humanities degrees chose a finance career and men also dominated in management.

It’s therefore hardly surprising, surely, that so few women today are CEOs or on company boards, given those decisions two or more decades ago. Building the pipeline of executive female talent is still going to take some time; an arts degree is not an impediment but career choice may be.

So, if a degree subject is not really that critical, should young people go to university at all? Earnings data suggest that a good degree from a top-tier university is still an excellent investment but, with high tuition fees and a more discriminating youth employment market, I’d caution against making the decision on “auto-pilot” just because it’s the conventional path.

Many companies now offer fantastic apprenticeship schemes and are strong competition to universities for top school-leaver talent. The fund management industry, for example, is actively creating more such opportunities – Investment 2020, the brainchild of Henderson Global Investors’ CEO Andrew Formica and former JO Hambro boss Nichola Pease, aims to give school leavers training and work experience in the sector, for example.

Having nine children, I am especially conscious that university is not necessarily the right choice for everyone.So my top three study and career tips for anyone at a crossroads between school and higher education are:

1. If you go to university, choose a subject that you love or at least are genuinely interested in. You’re much more likely to be good at it and that in itself will open up your career choices. Don’t be pressured into choices, based on conventional views about what subjects map on to which careers.

2. Think carefully about whether you really want to go to university – don’t just go because everyone else is.

3. Don’t rule out careers because of their image – yes, you can be moral in the City (and will be more welcome if you are) and engineering does not require you always to wear a hard hat. Women, in particular, should try to resist gender stereotyping; it’s disheartening that in the decade to 2012, 200,000 women left the US financial services sector – more than that number of men joined over the same time frame. The perceived culture seems to put off women – we can help change that but only from within. Think more in terms of what you can offer rather than about preconceived notions of the environment.

And, finally, enjoy the journey. Your working life is likely to be long. If your first choice proves a misstep, don’t be afraid to start again. Your generation is the one for whom work will become an activity rather than a place – you’ll be able to achieve much more, although not necessarily in a linear, chronological order. It’s exciting but daunting, whether we’re at the start, middle or nearing the end of our careers; the best advice I’ve ever been given is to embrace the inevitable uncertainties and use them to forge your own path.

Helena Morrissey CBE is CEO of Newton Investment Management and Founder of The 30% Club